By the middle of the 1600's the relationship between the American colonies and England began to show signs of strain. Many colonists began to feel like England was taking advantage of them. Mercantilism, The Navigation Acts, and taxation with out representation are the three focal points of controversy that led the American colonies to rebel from England. The colonists were fed up with the way England was treating them and eventually would set off to try and be independent.
The aggravation commenced when England began to trade through an economic system called mercantilism. This system was used by England to increase their wealth and to help establish a favorable balance of trade. England tried to sell more materials than what they bought which would help them economically. The colonists would gather cheap raw materials, which could not be found in the mother country of England. The colonists would then ship the products off to England. England would then turn the raw materials into expensive goods that would cost a great deal more than they did when the English received them. England would then sell the expensive materials to the colonists for a larger amount of money. England was making intricate amounts of profit from the colonists. The colonists would eventually begin to realize that England was manipulating them and taking advantage of their services. The colonists would put up with this for only so much longer before they would begin to act on their feelings of rebellion.
Even though the colonists were fulfilling most of their mercantilist roles, however, not all of the goods being exported would end up on English docks. Some of the products such as tobacco and lumber had made it to Spain, France, and Holland. England felt like this was an economic threat so they persuaded the Parliament to create the Navigation Acts, in which the colonies played a critical role. These acts were laws that were created by the English to limit colonial trade as much as possible.
